Our Last Goodbye
by Night Vale Secret Police
Summary: AU where the T.A.R.D.I.S. makes a turn back to Bad Wolf Bay. Post Journey's End. TenxRose and a little bit of TentooxRose.


**My contribution for Tumblr's 2014 #doctorwhofest. This category: Favorite Pairing(s)**

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"Okay Doctor, what's it now?" Donna finally asked, wanting to break the choking silence ever since they stepped in the Tardis.

The Doctor remained silent.

Donna sighed and walked up to the Doctor, placing a hand on his shoulder gingerly. The Doctor looked at Donna, thankful he still had one companion to keep him company.

"She's still in your head, ain't she?" Donna asked him, giving him a sympathetic look.

The Doctor looked at Donna and opened his mouth as if to say something, but shut his mouth and looked away.

"What's the point in thinking if my thoughts matter nil," the Doctor muttered.

"Oh come on. Surely the Tardis could fly us back to her! Come on, Doctor. Don't beat yourself up," Donna said, trying to lighten up the Doctor's mood.

But all it did was sadden him even more. He clutched his head and leaned against the Tardis console, shutting his eyes tightly in dismay. "She's living another life now; a better one… with a part of me that could actually live _his_ life with _her_."

"Doctor," Donna said, giving the Doctor's shoulders a gentle squeeze. "At least try to cheer up."

The Doctor looked at Donna, giving her a small smile. He stood up straight and straitened his suit, taking a deep whiff of the atmosphere. His smile grew wider as he ruffled his hair and winked at Donna. Donna smiled back; her smile wavering a bit as she placed a hand on her head.

"Are you okay, Donna?" the Doctor.

Donna gave him a reassuring look and replacing her hand back on the console, "No, I'm fine. Just a small headache, is all."

The Doctor nodded and made to pull a lever on the console when the Tardis abruptly started shaking uncontrollably. It jerked back and forth, having the two passengers cling onto the console for dear life.

"What? What's going on, Doctor?" Donna shouted as the Doctor pushed buttons and pulled certain levers.

The Doctor grunted as he reached for the landing mechanisms on the console. He put his left foot on one of the buttons and tried to reach for the stabilizing lever. "I don't know!" he shouted as sparks started sprouting out of the side of the Tardis.

Once the Doctor managed to pull the stabilizing lever and landing gear, the Tardis calmed and everything was still. Donna leaned on the console out of breath as the Doctor walked around the console observantly.

"What just happened?" Donna asked annoyed as the Doctor ruffled his hair and put his hand on his hips, a look of confusion displayed across his face.

The Doctor shook his head, "I have no idea." He decided to stroll to the monitor to check where they had landed. The Doctor soon widened his eyes and rushed out of the Tardis with Donna following behind.

Outside, they found themselves standing on the gloomy bay that was ever so familiar to the Doctor.

"Bad Wolf Bay," Donna gasped as they looked around their surroundings. "Why'd you bring us here?"

"That's because I didn't," the Doctor muttered, putting his hands inside the pockets of his trench coat. He felt a small, hard object in the inside on his pocket, but dismissed the idea of its existence for the moment.

As he observed their surroundings, they saw a group of people huddled around a van. The Doctor squinted to look closer and realized that Rose and her family still haven't left the bay yet. She was facing another man who looked exactly like himself.

Donna looked at the Doctor who stood there in dismay. "You should go to her, Doctor."

"What's the point?" the Doctor said, sighing and looking around the cloudy sky. "Saying goodbye didn't do me good the last time."

Jackie Tyler noticed the Tardis in the distance with the Doctor and Donna right next to it. She pulled on Rose's jacket and pointed towards their direction. Rose turned towards the direction her mother pointed and looked at the Doctor with hurt in her eyes. The Doctor's meta-crisis leaned in towards her and whispered something that the Doctor and Donna obviously couldn't hear.

The Doctor looked questioningly at the two as Rose wrapped her arms around the meta-crisis, rubbing her nose on his shoulder. She let go of him and placed her hand on his cheek gingerly, giving him a fast peck on the lips before running off towards the _real_ Doctor.

"Now's your turn to run towards _her_," Donna whispered to the Doctor with crossed arms.

He looked at Donna with wide eyes and a wrinkled forehead. He took deep breaths from his nose and ruffled his hair.

Rose stopped running and looked at the Doctor, her chest heaving up and down. She looked at him with a heart breaking expression. The Doctor shook his head and looked away. Rose stayed where she stood with her hair flowing against the bay's cold, wet wind.

The Doctor kept shaking his head, shaking it faster by the second until he looked up to Rose once more. His mouth formed an open frown with his bottom lip quivering. "I can't do this anymore," he uttered to himself.

The Doctor ran towards her. He ran faster than ever before. He ran faster than the first time he met Rose, when he first took her hand and yelled, "Run!" He missed her. _She_ missed him. She _loved_ him.

Of course… everyone knows how to finish that phrase.

The Doctor eventually stopped a few feet away from Rose, catching his breath as Rose gave him a small, quivering smile.

"You always had a thing for running, didn't you," Rose joked, choking back a sob.

The Doctor gave out a breathy chuckle, smiling at the one he believed in. From the distance, he noticed his meta-crisis running towards them. Rose turned around and saw him running towards them as well. As soon as he arrived at the scene, he nodded towards the Doctor and intertwined his fingers with Rose's.

"She brought you back, didn't she?" the meta-crisis assumed, referring to the Tardis.

The Doctor hid his hands in his pockets. "Yup," he said, popping his lips to emphasize the –p.

The meta-crisis nodded understandingly, looking at the Doctor in an expression the Doctor couldn't quite read. The Doctor nodded his head slowly as his presence became even more awkward than it should have been until he lifted his eyebrows up abruptly and pulled out something from the pocket of his coat.

He tossed it to the meta-crisis in which the meta-crisis caught it with ease.

"This isn't-," the meta-crisis started before being interrupted by the Doctor.

"Chunk of the Tardis. Grow your own. This universe would need some defending once I leave. I won't be able to return to this universe again for quite some time. Once I leave, the boundaries between both our walls will be closed for good. You and I won't be able to break through the boundaries unlike last time. No going back. Not even the Tardis can do something like that _twice_."

"But it'll take thousands of years!" the meta-crisis implied, holding out the coral-like object.

"Well… if you could shatter off the plasmic shell and modify the dimensional stabilizers- wait we have the same mind… along with Doctor!Donna over there," the Doctor said, scratching the back of his neck and jerking his head towards the red head next to the Tardis. "You know how to finish it."

The meta-crisis nodded his head slowly as Rose took a step towards the Doctor. "What about you?"

"I have Donna to keep me company. The head of a Time Lord with the body of a human. Perfect combination for a best friend to travel with as equals. I'll be fine," the Doctor said casually, all sign of dismay wiped out of his face and replaced with his knowledgeable, witty aura.

"You ran to me though, Doctor. If everything was going to be fine, why did you look like you were in such a hurry to get to me?" Rose asked; her forehead knit with questioning.

The Doctor's joking smile disappeared and was replaced by a fond, familiar smile. He let out a breathy laugh and widened his smile, his bottom lip quivering once more. "I guess I just wanted to finish what I was going to say to you," he said and paused.

"Rose Tyler, I-."

"I know," Rose said with a big breath.

Rose walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. The Doctor looked startled, but eventually hugged her back. He tightened his hug, scared that if he let go, he would never see her again. In a way, that was true.

Once they let go of each other, they parted ways. The Doctor's meta-crisis saluted him with two fingers as he held onto Rose's hand. The Doctor walked back to the Tardis, not wanting to look back. He eventually reached the Tardis where Donna stood; having watched all that had taken place just then.

"Come on, Doctor," Donna said sympathetically. "Let's go… everywhere."

The Doctor looked up and gave her a small smile as they boarded the Tardis.

From the bay, the meta-crisis and Rose stood there until the Tardis fully disappeared. Rose covered her mouth and nose, trying to stop the tears that tempted to escape. The meta-crisis bent down to cover her shaking figure.

"One day, we'll go everywhere as well. We'll do it together," he said, as they remained where they were on Bad Wolf Bay.


End file.
